What to expect from a Personal Trainer?

I send my clients EVERY workout session we do. A PROFESSIONAL CPT should. There's no reason to hold them "hostage" as a client. The whole goal is to get rid of your client anyway because IF you did it right and they feel confident, they can do it on their own. Many CPT's I've dealt with in the past are pretty lazy when it comes to giving their clients workout programs. They only want to train them and that's it. There will be clients who DON'T need you to give them a program, they just want you do train them because they need you for accountability. I have a few clients that I've trained for 9 years. They know what to do, but won't come in unless they have a session.

A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

ninerbuff wrote: »

I send my clients EVERY workout session we do. A PROFESSIONAL CPT should. There's no reason to hold them "hostage" as a client. The whole goal is to get rid of your client anyway because IF you did it right and they feel confident, they can do it on their own. Many CPT's I've dealt with in the past are pretty lazy when it comes to giving their clients workout programs. They only want to train them and that's it. There will be clients who DON'T need you to give them a program, they just want you do train them because they need you for accountability. I have a few clients that I've trained for 9 years. They know what to do, but won't come in unless they have a session.

A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

Agree, a good trainer should train the client to do the work on their own. Maybe 4-6 sessions initially until the client can do the exercises correctly, then maybe a follow up in a month or 2 to check form and make modifications to the programming as needed.

Magic_Chicken wrote: »

Hi

So I have been doing a 1hr session each week with a Personal Trainer at my gym @ £40 a session. I have never worked with one before so not sure what to expect but all I get is my one session. Should I also be getting a training programme for the other days too? When I asked for one I was told I would need to sign up for more weekly sessions in order to get a programme or diet plan etc. Is this pretty standard practise when doing limited sessions with a PT? Just wondering what is reasonable/unreasonable to expect. Thanks

Unfortunately I don't think there is really much of an industry standard or standard practice. If the PT is employed by the gym, the PT has to follow whatever is laid out by the gym they're working for. Not all PT's employed by a gym are necessarily bad, but it has been my experience that most of them are new to the industry and they themselves are still learning and being employed by a gym gets their feet in the door. I've had my best experiences with PTs that work on their own and either rent space at a gym or have their own facility. They tend to be more experienced and usually have credentials well beyond the basics of certification and they run their own show.

I would say that $50 for a session in my experience really just covers the session...that is pretty much the going rate where I am. My trainer and his wife (who I also sometimes train with) own their own gym and the $50 fee is really just for the training session itself. My wife and I get a few additional perks because they also happen to be really good friends of ours (nothing like sitting around a pool drinking tequila with your trainer), but for most clients a written program and eating plan is an additional cost. For the most part, their individual sessions are full body rather than a split...so at minimum, their clients are getting in one full body training session per week...which depending on goals may or may not be enough. That is all my wife does and she focuses on cardio the rest of the week and she looks great for it. Otherwise, their "homework" is rather generic in the sense that they don't tell clients to specifically do this or that. They are great about explaining what a given exercise movement does as well as explaining other movements that work that same group of muscles and basically just tell their clients to run something similar to what they just did once or twice more before the next session, mixing up exercises that work the same muscle groups if desired. Probably difficult for someone new, but with enough sessions, you just kind of learn what is what.

Something to also keep in mind is that a good trainer isn't just running cookie cutter sessions with their clients. Clients are individual and have varying degrees of skill, age, injury and other things that might need work arounds, goals, etc. My trainers sessions are individualized for each client...that in itself takes quite a bit of time and that is what I'm paying my $50 for. They charge additional fees for diet plans and structured programs because it is a lot of additional work, particularly when you look at it cumulatively if they were to do that with every single client. I don't think they'd ever get to sleep. As it is, they are in the gym from about 5:00 AM to 9-10 PM most days.

For a noob in general I wouldn't personally recommend a body part split nor would I want to work with a trainer who's session was a split session...IMO, that's just too much extra "homework" for a noob. I think communication is also key and a two way street. It's also something that sometimes that relationship just clicks, and sometimes it doesn't and never really takes off. I went through a few trainers before I really clicked with anyone.